mojosmom

Today is the first day of my retirement.

I highly recommend retiring (or otherwise leaving your job) for finding out what people think of you. I was taken out to lunch twice in two days, and colleagues kept stopping by my office yesterday telling me they were going to miss me and thanking me for my help and my work. After my last case in court, the judge led a round of applause for me. To my utter astonishment, the former State's Attorney (now an Appellate Court justice) showed up at my going-away party Wednesday night, when there was no political percentage in his doing so. The party was delightful in all respects. We went to a local casual restaurant which has a patio, and, as the weather was glorious, that is where we hung out. Scads of people showed up, from my office as well as the prosecutor's office, and also a number of people with whom I used to work (one of whom brought me a bottle of champagne).

Last night, a friend invited me to a wine-tasting at her church (it was a fund-raiser for one of their summer youth programs). They had quite the variety! About 15 different winemakers, from the U.S., Australia and New Zealand, were represented, with several varietals each. (I did not sample all of them!) Ordinarily, I'd have taken the bus home, but as there were a few of us from the neighborhood, we decided to share a cab. And thank goodness. About ten minutes after I got home, we were hit by a major thunderstorm. It was coming down in sheets, and in some areas they got hail so thick it looked like snow on the ground. Sadly, one of those areas was the neighborhood where the Garfield Park Conservatory is; the buildings were badly damaged, and they have had to close indefinitely.

This morning, I woke up about 6:30 and promptly turned over and went back to sleep. ;-))

It was supposed to be horribly hot today. Instead, it was extremely overcast, and threatening rain again. I debated going to an outdoor jazz concert at the local shopping center. In the event, I did go, and we got in well over an hour's worth of music (two hours were scheduled) before it started to rain a bit. Since you don't want to be playing electrified instruments in the rain, however slight, the concert ended, and I went and had a light lunch.

The rain stopped shortly thereafter, but it was still overcast, and when I got home I encountered my downstairs neighbor who was mulling over whether she should go to Taste of Chicago. I hope she did go, because it's cleared up quite nicely now, and the sun is out. The cat and I hung out on the porch while dinner was in the oven. Dinner, by the way, was excellent. I did a pork tenderloin with cardamon, mint and dried apricots, and had a green salad with it. Yum.

Here's an utter travesty. I will be taking a course on British women mystery writers, and we were supposed to read Dorothy L. Sayers' Gaudy Night, one of my favorite books ever. Today, I got an email from the instructor with a syllabus change. Seems that Gaudy Night is out of print! (And so are the two Ngaio Marsh books we were going to read.) I'm appalled.

Sounds like an opera diva's nickname, like La Divina or La Stupenda, doesn't it? But it's Italian for "blizzard". I went to work today, anticipating that I would leave just a bit early, or whenever I saw it starting to snow, and not go in tomorrow. (I'd decided that the other day, particularly after I checked my calendar and realized that I had nothing scheduled for court.) However, at about 12:30 my boss stuck his head in my office and suggested that I head home right then. He said that the courthouse was likely going to be closed at 3:00 and would be closed tomorrow. So I threw a file in my bag and left.

It's supposed to be a doozy, the worst since the storm of '67, during which my father abandoned his car and walked home, a distance of nearly 8 miles. I am about a block from the lake, where twenty to twenty-five foot waves are predicted, which means that Lake Shore Drive will likely be closed. I must say that the lake tends to look really beautiful in this sort of weather, but I am not sure it will be worth it to go try to photograph it!

I will be warm and cozy in my apartment with books to read and cats to snuggle with, and my fridge and cupboard are sufficiently full to meet my needs. My main concern, frankly, is whether I'll be able to get my car out after the storm. I may go out a couple of times during the day, if it's feasible, to dig out so I don't have to do it all at once. But getting it out of the alley may be a whole 'nother story, as they say.

and, having writ, moves on." Where the heck did the year go? If I were a resolution-making sort of person, I'd resolve to read more, be on the computer less, except for being on it more. That sounds like it makes no sense, but I started the year with all good intentions of keeping up my LJ and my book blog, and then lapsed. I'd like to do better at keeping them up, but I make no promises.

I started 2011 with French toast (not good for my diet, but very good for using up stale bread), and doing one entry on my blog with all the books I read this year (at least I did keep a list, though I may have forgotten a couple), with some commentary. I also put away most of the Christmas décor, but not soon enough. I heard Lilith making hacking noises. She had gotten at the one, tiny bit of tinsel around, which I thought was out of her reach. Ha. Nothing is out of a cat's reach when she puts her mind to it. Frankly, though, it's a good thing she did throw it up, as cats and tinsel do not mix well.

I was going to go out walking, but it's too darn cold. Yesterday, it was in the 50s, though it did rain. A local shop that I like was having a sale, so I bought a couple of things for January birthday gifts, and then I stopped by Borders, which was also having a sale and bought a couple of books. I saw the New Year in with a glass or two of Perrier-Jouët Grand Brut, drunk from their "Fleur de Champagne" glasses, which I've had forever (well, since 1985, when I got married), and chunks of fig & walnut panforte with goat cheese. Dinner was leftover duck (we went out with friends for Chinese on Monday and I have been living on the leftovers!) that I perked up with onion, sage and green olives and tossed with papardelle.

My book to start the New Year is East of Wimbledon, by Nigel Williams, who also wrote The Wimbledon Poisoner which I read a while back and enjoyed immensely. There is a third "Wimbledon" book, They Came from SW19, that I shall look for if this one lives up to its promise.

Because I was off three days Christmas week, and three days this week (counting yesterday), I feel as though I had an entire two weeks off, and then I'm off next week doing my annual trial advocacy coaching. They'll forget what I look like! Well, they can get used to that because, barring anything unforeseen, I'm going to retire this year, likely by midsummer.

Did you know that if you tell cultural institutions that you've remembered them in your will, they invite you to all sorts of interesting events? I've been invited to an opening at the Art Institute because I'm now a member of their "Legacy Society". For all they know, I've left them $10! They don't ask; I guess that would be crass. In fact, they're getting a share of whatever's left, and, as my lawyer said, if I'm lucky, I'll be old and have spent it all! When my sisters and I went for Thai food the other day, we got fortune cookies, and mine said, "You are going to have a very comfortable retirement." Let's hope it was right!

My deputy thought it was a hoot!  

I printed out the photo and captioned it "[Deputy's name]'s worst nightmare!"  Gave it to him this morning.  He cracked up, and then asked our clerk for some tape so he could tape it to his file drawer.

Our courtroom deputy has two pet peeves: babies in the courtroom and baseball caps in the courtroom (on someone's head). We always kid him that one day someone will bring in a baby wearing a baseball cap, and he'll go off the deep end. Today, I found this picture on the web: Babies in Ball Caps. I have printed it out and I'm going to leave it on his desk tomorrow.

I may need bail money!

My favorite legal research tool has finally been updated! The Illinois Handbook of
Criminal Law Decisions (a/k/a "The Bible" or "The Green Book"), published by the Office of the State Appellate Defender and the Illinois State Bar Association, was sooooo outdated. The last volume was published in 1998 with a supplement in 2003, with yearly updates on the Appellate Defender's website. But ever since it was published just by OSAD, and was red, and was called "Davidson's outline" after the OSAD employee who compiled it, it's been the greatest tool, mostly because of how it's organized.

We've been grousing for years that it needed a complete overhaul and updating, and they finally did it, and I was just handed my copy. (Oh, it's not green anymore, though, so I guess we'll have to give it a new nickname.)

So I'm a very happy camper.

God, I love this city. Where else can you visit eight art galleries on a moving elevated train? It's called Art on Track, the brainchild of a group called Salvo NFP, which places art in unlikely public spaces. You pay an entrance fee (unless you, like me, have a free pass), go up on the "L" platform, and wait for the "Art on Track" train. It goes around the elevated tracks in the Loop, and you can ride it as long as you want, changing cars at the different stations. Each of the eight cars has art from a different gallery or studio, and artists or gallerists are there to talk about the art/installations.

Installations and interactive art were very popular, as the venue lends itself to that sort of thing. Kids were particular fond of this bubble-wrapped car:


Other cars were simply used as display space for art, such as this one for the Flat Iron Artists Association:


After I'd enjoyed that, I had some time before my AAUW meeting, so I wandered over to the Art Institute to see the James Castle retrospective. I find his work oddly compelling. Profoundly deaf since birth, he never learned to sign or lip-read, though he spent several years at the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind. He was a self-taught artist who worked in isolation in the family home, and his primary materials were paper detritus (unfolded matchboxes, discarded texts) and a soot-and-saliva medium. He worked in the book format and created sculptural works, although his works are mainly drawings, often with human figures heads of objects, such as chairs. It's a great show, covering all aspects of his work, and thoughtfully curated.

I got home and went over to the shopping center, purportedly to run errands, but, in reality, to check out the used book sale. I just picked up a couple of books, because I planned to (and did) go back this morning when prices were slashed 50%. Tomorrow is $5 box day, so I am going to return. Then off to 57th Street Books to pick up my copy of I like it like that.

Winter is definitely upon us. It was quite cold this morning, though I expect the Marathon runners preferred that to the horrendously hot weather they had to cope with last year at this time. No need to stop the race early on account of the heat this year!

I have some vacation time that I have to use or lose. I will take a week off around Christmas when my sisters come to town, but I decided to take next week off as well. On Tuesday I will drive to Galena, come back Thursday to go to a benefit for Teatro Vista, and head to Springfield for a seminar on Friday. (Galena is a small town on the western border of Illinois, across the Mississippi River from Iowa, very scenic. It was the home of President Ulysses S. Grant, and has a lot of Victorian architecture. In fact, I'll be staying at a bed-and-breakfast housed in a Victorian mansion.)

Saw Tom Stoppard's play, Rock 'n' Roll, at the Goodman the other day. It got rave reviews, but I don't see it. Not that it was bad, but it wasn't that great, either. It didn't help that it was difficult to understand the actors who used a Czech accent; I don't know if that was a result of bad diction or bad acoustics. A deep knowledge of 60s-70s rock and British & Czech politics of the period would help, too.

Friday/Saturday I was in Springfield at the twice-yearly Public Defender seminar. It was very good, some very useful and interesting presentations. We gave an award to the recently-retired chief State Appellate Defender (who'd been in the job something like forty years - until his retirement he was the only person to have the job). I was going to get together with my friend, Sue, but she wasn't feeling well so we didn't manage to do so.

Right after the program ended on Saturday, I went up to Waukegan to have dinner with friends. I had volunteered to stop and get salad fixings, so stopped at the Jewel and remembered all over again why I don't like that chain. Their produce department sucks (how can a produce department not have green onions or endive?), and I hate, hate, hate those damn tv screens at the checkout that blare advertising at you. They don't have express lanes, unless you're using self-checkout (which messes up half the time). The cashier asked me if I had my Jewel card, and when I said I didn't have one, handed me a form to fill out. Hello? I don't recall saying I wanted one. Not her fault, though; I'm sure they tell her to do that. But it's annoying.

I didn't do much today. Moved winter clothes and summer clothes from one closet to another, and that sort of thing. I watched "Great Performances from the Met" this afternoon, as it was one of my favorite operas, Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, with Stephanie Blythe and Danielle de Niese in the title roles. Mark Morris directed and choreographed and Isaac Mizrahi did the costumes! Loved it.

I left work right after court on Monday because I had come down with a bad cold and felt really miserable. I also took yesterday off, so my partner covered for me. He continued one of my in-custody cases to Friday, and today the client called from the jail. He wanted to make sure I was feeling better and that I didn't have swine flu!

My best-laid plans of sleeping late this weekend went agley on Friday. I was having lunch with one of the guys at the offce. He'd been sick lately (pneumonia), and, being a guy, came back to work too soon, relapsed, and still was feeling a bit punk. When I said, "I hope you're going to have a real rest this weekend", he responded, "No, I have Bond Court." So, rolling my eyes and muttering about people who should take better care of themselves, I swapped Bond Court weekends with him. That meant I got up at my usual time instead of snuggling with the cats.

( Saturday )

( Sunday )